What Next - Why Tuition’s So Damn High
What Next | Daily News and Analysis
Slate Podcasts
4.3 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2023
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over the last 20 years, the average college student at a public university has seen prices go up 64 percent, as schools spend more and more on amenities to attract students and raise their own rankings.
Guest: Melissa Korn, higher education reporter at the Wall Street Journal.
If you enjoy this show, please consider signing up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get benefits like zero ads on any Slate podcast, bonus episodes of shows like Slow Burn and Dear Prudence—and you’ll be supporting the work we do here on What Next. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to help support our work.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey friend, before you hit fast forward through this ad, let me just bend your ear a tick |
| 0:06.2 | and tell you all about Slate Plus, Slate's membership program. Do you know that what next is |
| 0:12.7 | going to be here for you, whether there's big breaking news or whether you just want to hear |
| 0:17.2 | about a story you might have missed? Basically, we've got you totally covered. And we're here, |
| 0:22.8 | thanks to Slate. If you want to support us, and I know you do, the best way to do that is to |
| 0:29.0 | join Slate Plus. It'll get you all connected with Slate's award-winning journalism, |
| 0:34.5 | you'll get ad-free podcasts, you'll get plus exclusive content on shows like Slow Burn |
| 0:39.1 | and Political Gav Fast, and you'll never hit a paywall on the Slate site. Every new membership |
| 0:44.8 | helps ensure we can continue bringing you the biggest stories each week. So go on, hit the Pause |
| 0:50.0 | button, and go to Slate.com slash what next plus. Again, that's Slate.com slash what next plus. |
| 0:56.5 | All right, on with a show. |
| 1:04.6 | I could start this story about the way public universities are spending |
| 1:08.3 | extravagantly right now. A lot of places. I could tell you about the college's building |
| 1:13.7 | esports arenas. I could tell you about the massive climbing walls that are no longer that uncommon. |
| 1:20.5 | But for me, it was something much smaller that stood out. University of Kentucky's dorms. |
| 1:29.7 | They don't have communal bathrooms. They've got granite countertops. They have full-size |
| 1:35.2 | temperpidic mattresses. I never had a full-size bed in college. I still don't have a temperpidic bed. |
| 1:42.9 | No. Melissa Gorn is a reporter at the Wall Street Journal. |
| 1:48.0 | And they are not going above and beyond. They don't have a lazy river in Kentucky. |
| 1:53.2 | They do it a lot of other schools. A lazy river? Like, is that a man-made river? |
| 1:58.3 | Oh, yeah. Okay, I just need to talk about the lazy rivers. |
| 2:03.1 | The most famous one is probably Louisiana State University. It's in the shape of LSU. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Slate Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Slate Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

